1. If you leave your business cards tossed about the hotel like boats in a storm, you will get emails about how cool you are.
2. I don't like most things.
3. Getting drunk with artist friends is the best thing you can do for your career.
Thursday, February 27, 2014
Wednesday, February 26, 2014
Professional advice for your online presence
Hey guys, I happen to have a pretty neat connection that came in handy for me with this whole online-presence thing. About 7-ish years ago, I met this Australian guy online through a browser game we both played at the time. Despite mutually deciding that game was a cheating, time-sinking pile of s:!+, we've remained pretty good friends over the years. Anyways, he ended up working in what I refer to as basically being online-PR... though he assures me that's different. So you can see why, when it found out we had to make a web site and a business card for the class, I wanted to go and ask him for some advice. Here's the basics of what I got:
1) Wix.com is a pretty great website builder. It's free until you want your own domain name, and You don't have to know squat about HTML or anything. They have all sorts of templates ripe for customizing. I just signed up for an account, so I suppose I'll keep you posted on the specifics of it once I figure it all out.
2) Get an email address to go with that site, especially if you get your own domain! Doesn't "contact@[yourdomain].com" sound pretty sweet? It's not that tough to set up... You just get any old email address (like a gmail or yahoo email) to be routed through the site. Then, when someone sends a message to that address, it basically gets forwarded to the account of your choice. And it IS a good idea to make this account separate from your personal email, for what should be obvious reasons.
Alternatively, if you don't plan on having a personal web page just yet, at least make sure you have a professional sounding email, like johndoe@yahoo.com or doephotography@gmail.com.
3) Facebook, Tumblr, and Pinterest pages/accounts are good things to hook up to a web site, or even use as your main presence. HOWEVER! Watch out for something called an "IP clause" in the terms of agreement. As you've heard, I'm sure, Facebook technically owns anything you post on their site. They have updated a lot of stuff and have mostly moved away from shamelessly and unexpectedly using your stuff for ads (now there are setting for that) but that clause IS still there, and it may be present on other places you post images! That means they seriously reserve the right to, at ANY freaking time they want, say "nope, this is mine." So think twice before you post ANYTHING like a logo or an image of your art to any web site!!
This is especially important for those who do digital photography, because unlike a photo of a painting, where the painting is the "art" and the photo is just simulacrum, the art IS the photograph. This leads me to the next bit of advice...
4) WATERMARK your stuff-- ESPECIALLY if you do digital art!! It's a little safer to skip this step if your art exists mainly in the physical realm (because it is VERY unlikely anyone will claim to own a photo of your sculpture...) but if you don't watermark, you're leaving the photo to potentially be used in ways you might not authorize. And while you could fight for ownership in a court case, that's messy and time consuming and expensive. So just watermark it.
And using your own logo to do so is a good idea, too, as the watermark both deters unauthorized use and advertises your brand.
5) Size totally matters. I mean, the size of your images. Again, this is a thousand times more important for digital artists and photographers, but this one really does apply to all of us. Do not make images of your art "HD" on your site-- a general good rule is to keep it at less than 1,000x1,000 pixels. Why? Because, this makes your image super easy to use elsewhere and print off. As in, make a big, framed print.
If the stuff in numbers 3-5 seems over-protective, let's go through a freaky horror scenario together.
Once upon a time, there was an up-and-coming young artist who had their own (Facebook/Tumblr/Web page). They got lots of visits, and were finally starting to make it in the world. However, they didn't care to look for IP clauses, they didn't watermark their images, and they had nice, high resolution versions of their photos on their site. All was going just fine, until one day, they were walking through a (Big Lots/Gordman's/other shifty department store) when they decided to travel into the home decor section. And what did they happen to see? A lovely framed "painting"... of THEIR WORK!!!
--dun dun DUNNNNNN--
They tried to get a lawyer on the case, but couldn't afford anyone crazy-good. The site they posted to didn't give a crap about backing them up, because they're a giant corporation, and don't give a crap about one teeny pissed-off artist. And the company reproducing the work denied that the artist was able to prove that the photo of the work was their own. Even worse, the company reproducing the work STILL had totally more money than the young artist, and had an at least decent lawyer. So even if the artist DID decide to put themselves through the shitty process of going to court, well... It probably wouldn't matter.
From that day on, every time the artist walked past the home decor aisle, they had to look at a copy of their work printed on shitty canvas-textured plastic, in a 'realistic-wood-resin' frame, on sale for just $14.99.
So, if you don't want your art to be on sale for $14.99, look for IP clauses, watermark your stuff, and keep your image sizes under 1,000x1,000 pixels.
That is what I learned from my wonderful* friend Liam. Hope it helps!
XXX Lorraine
*He's pretty cool, despite being upside-down, using the metric system, calling sweaters "jumpers", and eating lunch when people should be getting ready for bed.
1) Wix.com is a pretty great website builder. It's free until you want your own domain name, and You don't have to know squat about HTML or anything. They have all sorts of templates ripe for customizing. I just signed up for an account, so I suppose I'll keep you posted on the specifics of it once I figure it all out.
2) Get an email address to go with that site, especially if you get your own domain! Doesn't "contact@[yourdomain].com" sound pretty sweet? It's not that tough to set up... You just get any old email address (like a gmail or yahoo email) to be routed through the site. Then, when someone sends a message to that address, it basically gets forwarded to the account of your choice. And it IS a good idea to make this account separate from your personal email, for what should be obvious reasons.
Alternatively, if you don't plan on having a personal web page just yet, at least make sure you have a professional sounding email, like johndoe@yahoo.com or doephotography@gmail.com.
3) Facebook, Tumblr, and Pinterest pages/accounts are good things to hook up to a web site, or even use as your main presence. HOWEVER! Watch out for something called an "IP clause" in the terms of agreement. As you've heard, I'm sure, Facebook technically owns anything you post on their site. They have updated a lot of stuff and have mostly moved away from shamelessly and unexpectedly using your stuff for ads (now there are setting for that) but that clause IS still there, and it may be present on other places you post images! That means they seriously reserve the right to, at ANY freaking time they want, say "nope, this is mine." So think twice before you post ANYTHING like a logo or an image of your art to any web site!!
This is especially important for those who do digital photography, because unlike a photo of a painting, where the painting is the "art" and the photo is just simulacrum, the art IS the photograph. This leads me to the next bit of advice...
4) WATERMARK your stuff-- ESPECIALLY if you do digital art!! It's a little safer to skip this step if your art exists mainly in the physical realm (because it is VERY unlikely anyone will claim to own a photo of your sculpture...) but if you don't watermark, you're leaving the photo to potentially be used in ways you might not authorize. And while you could fight for ownership in a court case, that's messy and time consuming and expensive. So just watermark it.
And using your own logo to do so is a good idea, too, as the watermark both deters unauthorized use and advertises your brand.
5) Size totally matters. I mean, the size of your images. Again, this is a thousand times more important for digital artists and photographers, but this one really does apply to all of us. Do not make images of your art "HD" on your site-- a general good rule is to keep it at less than 1,000x1,000 pixels. Why? Because, this makes your image super easy to use elsewhere and print off. As in, make a big, framed print.
If the stuff in numbers 3-5 seems over-protective, let's go through a freaky horror scenario together.
Once upon a time, there was an up-and-coming young artist who had their own (Facebook/Tumblr/Web page). They got lots of visits, and were finally starting to make it in the world. However, they didn't care to look for IP clauses, they didn't watermark their images, and they had nice, high resolution versions of their photos on their site. All was going just fine, until one day, they were walking through a (Big Lots/Gordman's/other shifty department store) when they decided to travel into the home decor section. And what did they happen to see? A lovely framed "painting"... of THEIR WORK!!!
--dun dun DUNNNNNN--
They tried to get a lawyer on the case, but couldn't afford anyone crazy-good. The site they posted to didn't give a crap about backing them up, because they're a giant corporation, and don't give a crap about one teeny pissed-off artist. And the company reproducing the work denied that the artist was able to prove that the photo of the work was their own. Even worse, the company reproducing the work STILL had totally more money than the young artist, and had an at least decent lawyer. So even if the artist DID decide to put themselves through the shitty process of going to court, well... It probably wouldn't matter.
From that day on, every time the artist walked past the home decor aisle, they had to look at a copy of their work printed on shitty canvas-textured plastic, in a 'realistic-wood-resin' frame, on sale for just $14.99.
So, if you don't want your art to be on sale for $14.99, look for IP clauses, watermark your stuff, and keep your image sizes under 1,000x1,000 pixels.
That is what I learned from my wonderful* friend Liam. Hope it helps!
XXX Lorraine
*He's pretty cool, despite being upside-down, using the metric system, calling sweaters "jumpers", and eating lunch when people should be getting ready for bed.
Hey PAINTERS: New American Paintings Midwest Competition Deadline is February 28th, 2014.
ps. Painting is dead.
ps. Painting is dead.
Monday, February 24, 2014
The 10 Best Cities to be an Artist
And no, it's not LA or NYC
Ten Best Cities to Be an Artist
Actually the full list has 50 (no Appleton didn't make it). But my adopted hometown, Long Beach, Calif. made #28.
Sunday, February 23, 2014
Welcome!
I know we're going on eighth week, but I thought that it wasn't too late to start up a resource for all of us art majors to share ideas and information. Feel free to post to your heart's content!
In the mean time, enjoy this glamor shot of Rob
unabashedly yours,
Emma
In the mean time, enjoy this glamor shot of Rob
unabashedly yours,
Emma
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